Historical “rut curves” assembled by whitetail biologists over decades show that bucks really begin to rev up their scraping around October 20. Better yet, the data show that 5 to 7 percent of a herd’s does are bred by bucks on October 21, give or takes a few days. That’s not a lot, but good things happen when bucks start to rip scrapes and prowl for the first estrus does. The more they are on their feet, the better your chances of shooting one. The big thing that can kill October hunting is warm weather. But when a cold snap blows in and drops the temperature 20 or 30 degrees, perfect. The cooler weather will kick deer into moving more. [...]

I saw this article by Oak Duke, a writer and hunter from New York, and I think he might be onto something. Oak wrote: The 2018 whitetail rut should unfold as a mirror image of the 1999 and 2010 events, very early for bow hunters, and then great for those of us who carry a gun into the deer woods in New York and Pennsylvania. 2018 will feature a bifurcated rut ... two-pronged. Oak’s theory revolves around full moons. In September, the moon was full just two days away from the Autumnal Equinox. He says that when this celestial conjunction occurs (the moon and the equinox at the same time) we witness early rutting activity: Deer hunters best be prepared for [...]

Saw this giant on my Twitter feed this morning, it will go down as one of the top bucks of 2018, and possibly the buck of the year. Early indications, it scores around 220. No further details, but you will see a lot more about this buck soon I am sure.